Hard times bring high school football teams together
HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL
Pain of coaches' crises is eased by players at Temecula Chaparral and Corona Centennial.
When he lost his mother to pancreatic cancer and later his home to foreclosure, Tom Leach turned to his boys, just as Matt Logan did when his wife was dying of breast cancer and his three young daughters needed him more than ever.
The reassurances were modest, provided by teenagers who did little more than show up each day. And yet they conveyed a world of meaning to the men whose lives they continually brightened.
"Some people need football more than football needs them," Leach says.
It has been a challenging couple of years for the football coaches from Temecula Chaparral and Corona Centennial highs. Leach lost his mother, his home and his marriage; Logan lost his wife and soulmate.
But amid all the losses there has been plenty of triumph. Leach's Chaparral Pumas tonight will play host to Logan's Centennial Huskies in the Southern Section's Inland Division championship game.
The teams are a combined 25-1, with Chaparral's only loss coming in its opener -- against Centennial.
But the teams' records are insignificant compared with the comfort the players have provided their coaches.
"The camaraderie is something that's there for you and helps you in any type of situation," Logan says.
It was 5 1/2 years ago when Logan's wife, Donna, was diagnosed with cancer. Logan's assistants coached the team while he accompanied her to Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C., for treatments.
On multiple occasions, it seemed as if Donna Logan had defeated her illness.
"When it looked like she beat it," says daughter Lindsey, now 16, "we'd get all excited."
But Donna succumbed to the cancer in July 2007, only weeks before the start of football practice. Huskies players, who had attended fundraisers for the family, placed commemorative stickers on their helmets and did their best to hide their own heartache from their coach.
"Obviously, we were a little down, but we couldn't show our feelings because we had to be strong for him," senior receiver Ricky Marvray says. "Just through our working hard and coming out to practice every day, getting him real fired up and trying to get his mind off things, I think we helped out a lot."
Centennial captured the Inland title and became the first team from the Inland Empire to advance to a state bowl game, where a furious comeback against Concord De La Salle fell short.
